


The Kennedy-Diandra Scheme

by longlegsbian



Category: The KDS
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:21:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23933749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/longlegsbian/pseuds/longlegsbian
Summary: After selling half his soul to lead a normal life, Dr. Kennedy, a therapist, finds himself interning a psychology student from the second realm; Dia, a neutral entity.  In order to bring more patients in and to learn about traumatic events and their effect on humans, they've created a scheme to traumatize and heal people, better known as the Kennedy-Diandra Scheme (the KDS).  An underclassman and fellow neutral, Tazmin, takes an interest in Dia, deciding to study her for next semester's research project and joining her on Earth.





	The Kennedy-Diandra Scheme

"What brings you in today? It's been quite a while since you made your last appointment," The doctor purred, rolling his wrist ever so slightly to mix the tea in his travel cup. Earl Grey, with one sugar cube. The familiar smell filled the room but was second only to the wafting smell of fear coming from the woman sitting in the loveseat.

"I've been having nightmares."

"What kind of nightmares? Do you mind describing them to me?" She hesitated, her eyes darting to and from each plant, each feature in the room, anxiety joining the prevalent trepidation. Her focus shifted away from the doctors as she caught Dia's eyes, who couldn't help the purr that came to her throat. The two stared intently for a few moments before the doctor spoke again. "Is something wrong, Josee?"

"That--That statue," The client sniveled, her fingers curling around the edge of her seat, holding so tightly that her knuckles started to turn white. She couldn't break their stare-off. There was a feeling of pity towards Josee at that moment, but pity shifted to a deep craving that she couldn't quite explain. It was almost cute, the way her bottom lip trembled, the simplicity of her wide eyes, the crunched brows, the way her voice wavered. She wanted to push it further, to see how far onto the edge she would go. Would she jump? Would she learn? How would she deal with her nightmare, slowly seeping into the world of reality? The hunger for that knowledge burned Dia's stomach like hot acid; but she had her requirements in place, so she stayed.

"Ah, do you like it? It's new." He paused, but with no response, tried to ease the room's tension by continuing the conversation. "A friend got it for me, she said that it would fit well here."

"It's... It's..." Dia stared harder, slightly shifting an eyebrow. "Terrifying," The client breathed. "Those eyes, they were--I've seen--Doc, I've seen those eyes. I've learned them, there's something wrong about this." The therapist turned in his chair, looking at the statue of the geometric, silver jaguar. It was completely sheen silver, with no difference in eye color. He had studied it when he first got it, its details were extraordinary. But even he could see the slight bit of an oddly familiar amber that had somehow appeared in the eyes.

"... I suppose it has been a while since you've come in, hasn't it. Perhaps we should catch up first, and then we can deal with your more pressing issues. Not to worry about your past, though, we won't have to go through the whole process." He tapped his clipboard with the cap of his fountain pen, which was plated with his last name, in gold. A family heirloom.

"No, I don't know if I'll be coming back."

"Nonsense, I’m sure this is just a relapse of some sort. I'll put the statue away if it really means that much to you, though." He looked back at the client, who finally broke their stare, looking at their lap. 

"That would be for the best." The doctor nodded once, putting his tea onto the side table. A few quick strides took him to the desk, where he grabbed the figure. For a moment, his entire body went cold, completely numb, but he refused to shift. The feeling released him, and he simply walked with it. Dia could tell he was in pain, a slight bit. As soon as the door shut behind him, the fake cat began to glow amber, that same luminescence turning to liquid, dripping onto the ground until very suddenly, it all began to gather into a person-figure. Dia stood there, with a devious smirk on her face, a hand on her hip. "Dia, darling, did you have anything to do with this?"

"Me?" She gave a light gasp, putting a hand to her chest. "No, never."

"Don't lie, I want to know what that beautiful mind of yours has come up with this time." The compliment triggered a deep rumble from the back of Dia's throat, similar to a rough purr. The doctor didn't seem to be having any of it, though. "Get on with it, we don't have forever." His annoyance with the time wasted annoyed her, so she chose to leave him in the dark. Besides, if he was going to properly handle it, he had to be in the dark.

"You'll see."

"You're supposed to torture her, not me."

"If I told you, it would spoil the fun," She squeaked, lightly pushing his shoulder towards the door. "Now she'll get suspicious if you don't go back in. Also, can I come? I want to see what's happening."

"She's already noticed you once, and it's your eyes that are distinct. We're not taking that chance again. Go sit in the office." Dia let out a loud groan, which with the slight rumble, made a similar, quieter sound to a lion's greeting. The doctor raised his eyebrows, and she begrudgingly turned on her heel.

"Fine. Tell me everything, though."

"Of course." He watched the demon drag down the hall. She could practically feel his judgemental eyes burn against her skin. "Actually, Dia?" There was a spark of joy that came into her chest as she heard his voice. Maybe she finally got to do something!

"Yeah?" Her voice squeaked with excitement.

"You should take this in with you. I don't want the client to get scared again," He droned with a hint of his own mischief laced within the words. Dia stared at him for a moment. He was human, he wouldn't last against possession, she could technically go in on her own account. But she couldn't, so she just huffed, holding her hand out. The cat flew into it, and she turned right back around to avoid seeing the satisfied smile that came to the therapist's face. "Thank you, Dia."

"Whatever." She shut the office door, throwing the statue onto the desk recklessly, and herself into the couch that they had there. If there wasn't a patient to be taken care of, she didn't really see why she had to stay awake.

\--

“Diandra, what have you learned from your internship? Do you have any notes that you would like to share with the class?” Her teacher asked, his tail flicking as he looked at her, signaling to her that it was okay to speak.

“If the class is fine with it, then I will speak.” There were grumbles of agreement, and she grabbed her crystal, standing up from her desk and letting her wings carry her to the front of the classroom. She set the crystal down in the projector, which showed what looked to be a powerpoint presentation. “I’ve been interning with Doctor Kennedy. He’s a white, middle-aged, married man with two kids. He works as a therapist for himself. I’ve been following his life and job for this course." She took a moment to breathe. "In a past life, he was an evil, evil man. So to make up for that, we gave him the option. Live with half a soul and live a good life, or continue being whole and continuously die horrible deaths. This motivated him to sell half of his soul, which makes him eligible for a demon partner, as he is aware of the second realm. Professor Logan," She motioned to their teacher, "Allowed me to reach out to study his career." She cleared her throat awkwardly, flicking her wrist to move the crystal, which switched the slides. 

"So, I introduce to you the Kennedy-Diandra scheme.” There was an echo of a chuckle, which put a small smile on her face as she tried to recover from it. “The name is a work in progress, but we call it the KDS for short. The scheme is simple; he needs more patients, I provide them, and get to study how he recovers patients from traumatic events. I can take that information back here and use it to heal those who chose to stay in the second realm and shift to a different being." A hand shot up, claws evident on it. She didn't want to notice it, but she could feel Mr. Logan's three eyes looking between both her and the teacher's pet. She let out a little sigh, motioning to the other girl. "Yes?"

"I have a few questions."

"Of course you do." The student snarled at her, and she rolled her eyes, her own tail flicking, the knife-like point scraping the ground. "Just... Hit me."

"What does he gain from this?"

"Money," She replied quickly. "Humans are greedy, they'd rather watch others suffer than giving something up for themselves. Or, just at all. They like to watch others suffer. Just look at their history against their own kind, which is still prevalent in their culture today. Sometimes, I don't even have to do anything, and they just come in, having been hurt by another human. Occasionally, I'll walk down the street, and people will get hurt just by doing that. It's amazing how predatory they all are, and still resist physical violence."

"Good answer, Diandra." There was a swell of pride that came to her chest as her teacher praised her answer, the same rough purr coming to her throat.

"Thank you, Professor. Any more questions, Nosey?"

"I do. Keep calling me things, and I'll have a lot more." She cleared her throat. "How are you traumatizing the humans?"

"Simple things. It doesn't take much to send them into a spiral, especially if they're already mentally ill. Like..." She thought back to the most recent assessment from the doctor, about a patient named Josee. "A specific example that I can give is that I gave a girl with paranoia distinct nightmares, and then allowed her to see little hints of me in her day-to-day. I haven't done anything else. She made the appointment by herself, and since then, has been convincing herself of seeing me even when I'm not there. Is that it or do you have more?"

"One." Dia's tail flicked, allowing her to speak. "You're a neutral entity, how do you go about doing quote-on-quote evil things to traumatize these people?"

"Knowledge, and the reassurance that they'll be... Cured." She held up her hands, making air quotes around the word cured. "If they don't make the appointment, I start giving them signs. Humans are very gullible to what they think signs are. I once saw a human notice a bird and say with confidence, that it was one of their own who had passed." The other entities let out a light chuckle. Humans were very odd to them, despite the fact that they resembled them. They had the classic demon features; Horns, wings, tails, animalistic features, different colors amongst the spectrum. But in truth, they were all neutral. "It's an odd job, but the recoveries are interesting to watch, and I'm learning more about human psychology than I would simply be if I were to simply follow the doctor's actual career, no interference." The student nodded slowly, leaning back in her seat.

"Thank you."

"Mmhm. Now, to get on with the project, let's talk about..."

\--

"Hey, Doc." Dia greeted as she walked through the portal, the art piece on the office wall. It was right above the sofa, which gave her a soft landing, as she took a more human form to appeal to both the doctor and to any patients that could burst in at any moment. 

"Hello, Dia," He grumbled, sorting through a pile of paperwork, his glasses resting low on his nose. He barely batted an eye at her entrance. "How did your presentation go?"

"Stupid Tazmin--"

"Ah, here we go again."

"Stupid Tazmin wants to know all about my project," She continued, ignoring both his comment and the familiar smell of his cologne, a little too strong. "Like, can't she stay in her own business? I get it, she's too young to have her own project, but that doesn't mean that she has to come to intrude on mine."

"Perhaps she admires you." Dia let out a loud laugh, shutting her eyes as she leaned back on the couch.

"Yeah, right. Admires me for what, torturing people and watching them get better? Not the noblest thing I've done. I'm doing my work to balance this all out, you know. And honestly, you should too. It's not really good for a human that's been notably evil in past lives to be okay with the torturing of other humans." He gave a shrug but didn't really say anything. He was a spectacular conversationalist when he wasn't working, but his focus had already been directed away from her. She sighed, putting a hand over her eyes. "I swear, if I hear her squeaky voice one more--"

"Diandra!" A high-pitched voice called, a head poking through the painting. Her eyes snapped open, looking at Tazmin above her. "I have a few more questions."

"Then you should've asked them during the presentation. Thanks."

"Well, then I have some announcements that you're going to have to listen to, so please sit up and let me come sit."

"I'm with the doctor."

"I don't mind," He remarked, lifting his head and giving a smile at the other entity. "Come right in. The more the merrier, we were just finishing up some paperwork." The sudden, sudden feeling of betrayal hit her like a brick falling from a skyscraper, and with that, Tazmin let herself in. She shot a glare at the doctor, who seemed relatively amused by the situation, before looking back at her classmate.

"What is it?"

"Well, I talked to the Professor. I really was wondering how a neutral entity is able to commit such crimes without turning sour and heading to a different realm. So, I've come to observe the observer." If Dia had a heart, it would've stopped three times over in that moment.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm going to use you as my research project for next year! The professor said it's always good to get a head-start, and that if I did it now, I might not have to do it later. So, I'll be by your side from now on, watching your every move." Dia looked at the Doctor, who simply stifled a laugh before flashing a charming smile and insisting,

"Welcome to the team, Tazmin."


End file.
